New South Wales made mistakes on Wednesday night and there is no denying that. They made mistakes when Queensland didn’t, offloaded when they held it, kicked when they passed it and pushed the issue when they should have pressed for the next play.

The Blues played State of Origin, but the class of the Maroons came back to bite us.

Did we forget how good they are?

Yes the Blues won the 2014 series but that doesn’t mean Queensland have lost their class.

This was another real instalment of Origin. It was gruesome, it had dirt, it had balls but the Maroons had a finer edge that Laurie Daley knows the Blues still don’t have.

We can blame the referees, the weather, Gobstoppers, Tony Abbott or anything else you want. But in the clutch, Queensland still has the greatest squad rugby league has ever seen.

Don’t be down, it’s one game.

I’ll tell you why the Blues can still win the series.

Anyone bagging Mitchell Pearce after this match is reaching. Watch the game closely and you’ll see that he put us on the front foot in the first half with his kicking and played super tough in the second.

It’s easy to blame Pearce for what happened as the Maroons won eight series straight. Ludicrous to blame a playmaker when he had so many different forwards and so many different coaches in a time when nobody really had a clue on how to beat the best Maroons any of us will ever see.

Pearce was Origin on Wednesday.

People are already saying that Pearce and Trent Hodkinson didn’t find enough ground with their kicking. This is where some clowns come in with a novelty cheque with a huge L.O.L on it and gives it to the next nuffy that thinks he knows the game.

Go back through any Origin in the last ten years, for either side, and tell me how many kicks hit the ground. You’re lucky to find the ground, unless you’re Andrew Johns or Darren Lockyer maybe, but Origin is about the chase, not the kick.

The Blues ticked boxes everywhere else.

STOP!

No they didn’t!

The media wants to bag Shannon Noll with a couple of negative tweets.

What the ^*#% has that got to do with the game?

I digress.

Sure they got tired and so did the Maroons.

Twice in the second half Greg Inglis got the ball. Years ago he received the pill, earlier, and trampled helpless little Blues like they were tenpins.

His first chance came later because Johnathan Thurston didn’t have the freedom he once had. He knew these were real Blues ahead of him; he stuttered and then gave it to Inglis who in turn shovelled a pass over the sideline, missing winger Darius Boyd.

A few years ago, Thurston would have given it earlier, a few years ago Inglis would have gone himself.

Minutes later Thurston popped it up to Inglis again who unsuspectedly fumbled into the blue line.

Yet Thursday morning all we’re going to do is kick the crap out of guys that don’t deserve it.

‘Bring back Josh Reynolds, bring back Luke Lewis and bring back Ray Price!’

Queensland is on the decline, any great historian can see the parallels.

The Blues won last year’s series on defence and a stiff upper lip and so it shall be in 2015.

Victory is earnt and you learn from your mistakes.

Evolution says the Blues win in Melbourne and they win in Brisbane.

@CurtisWoodward1