We've seen this movie a thousand times before. An Origin decider, and one team's flying around like mad men, forcing errors, throwing offloads and looking generally more up for it than their opponents. The game is over after the first twenty minutes because you can already see what direction it's going in. The second half, a mere formality.
It's just that every other time that's happened, it's been the team in Maroon doing the looting and plundering. But not tonight.
New South Wales were meaner, more willing to push the envelope and more aggressive in contact than in recent games, like a boxer always moving forward and looking to throw another jab, rather than sitting back and picking spots. It's not something we expected, but it became clear from Payne Haas's opening stint that tonight was going to be different. Even by his lofty standards, he was superb.
If you watched the game tonight and questioned where this level of fire was in the Blues' performances in the first two games, that would be a fair thing to ask.
But I guess that underdog tag that Queensland covets so much is more powerful that anyone realised.
The early long kicks from both Mitch Moses and Nathan Cleary took any pressure away from the visitors who really didn't have to do much defending in the early going, save for one set which ended with a meek handover on the last.
All week the conversation was about the start, and the speed with which the Blues started. It's fair to say 18-0 after half an hour qualified as a fast one.
The Maroons got their try just before the break but it was a play shortly before that which was very interesting - Harry Grant, so often the cleverest player on the field, acutely aware of his surroundings, went for a desperate grubber kick early in the tackle count. It took a bounce off a Blues defender and resulted in a set restart, but it was the type of low percentage play that, again, would normally be made by someone in a Blues jumper.
Queensland fought valiantly after halftime but once again, the role reversal continued. First there was the fortuitous Bradman Best try, which was then coupled with Max Plath being narrowly offside off the next Maroons attacking kick. Again, these fine margins and fortunate bounces usually go the other way.
And what happens now with Laurie Daley? His contract is up, and most thought of him as a dead man walking. Instead, he snuck out the back door while the firing squad were loading their muskets.
The inclusion of Liam Martin raised some eyebrows, but not if you've been paying attention for the last half a decade. His contributions don't always show up in the stats columns, but he's a proven winner in every team he's played for and tonight was no exception.
The Jack Bostock selection was a huge gamble and on another night it could have blown up in Daley's face - but this wasn't another night. Leaving Cam Murray on the bench could have left them susceptible to a slow start on another night - but instead, Murray came off the bench and scored a try almost immediately.
There has never been a more criticised coach at this level than Daley, and much of it is justified. But a more well-liked man in the sport you won't find, and this win is something everyone is going to enjoy as long as you're south of the border.
All the sweeping inquiries into the state of the Blues, the administration, and the coaching staff will have to wait another year at least. Because you can analyse and critique every aspect of a sport all day long, but there's one thing that defies all statistics and underlying metrics; winning. Winning fixes everything.