Kevin Walters gets his turn in the State of Origin hot seat as the Queensland coach picks up the pieces from their game-two no-show in time for the decider.
Led by James Maloney and Tom Trbojevic, the Blues belted the Maroons 38-6 at Optus Stadium in what was their second-biggest win in Origin history.
It leaves Walters with just 17 days to dissect the fallout before the fierce rivals fight for the shield at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on July 10.
"We all learned a good lesson tonight. And it was provided in our face from the get-go, about Origin football and how it should be played," Walters said.
"It won't be a difficult job, for mine.
"Everyone involved in the team is bitterly disappointed with what we threw up tonight. We'll just go back and fix a few areas and be back for game three."
Scores were locked at 6-6 after Will Chambers was awarded a penalty try in the 14th minute, however that proved to be the last of Queensland's points.
From there it was all NSW, despite losing No.7 Nathan Cleary for the second half with a syndesmosis injury that could rule him out of the decider.
Man-of-the-match Trbojevic (three tries), Maloney (two try assists) and James Tedesco (186 metres, two try assists) were the biggest stars.
And while errors and penalties were roughly even, the Blues' 1736 total metres gained almost doubled the Maroons' 989 metres.
Walters took some of the heat for the lopsided defeat.
"We can all be better as coaches and certainly I'm part of that as well," he said.
"That's my job to get our preparation, get our attitudes a lot better. And once we do that, we fix all those things, we'll be in a much better place for game three."
Blues coach Brad Fittler drew plenty of criticism in the build-up after making a whopping seven changes to the team that blew an eight-point lead in game one.
But now the focus will turn on whether Walters opts to pick-and-stick for the decider, particularly in a forward pack where only one player cracked 100 metres.
Dylan Napa was strangely iced on the bench after an opening 22-minute stint, while Will Chambers and Michael Morgan combined for 11 missed tackles.
Jarrod Wallace was also put on report for attacking the legs of Maloney on a kick.
Joe Ofahengaue and Christian Welch are the likely candidates to come into consideration in the pack should Walters choose to swing the axe.
"We'll look at that in the next few days. I've only seen the game once, so we'll look at that and see who's available as well coming into game three," he said.
On a positive note for the Maroons, they've won seven straight deciders dating back to 2006, including the past two at ANZ Stadium.
