Mayo 0-20 Dublin 0-08:Dublin looked anything but All-Ireland champions in Castlebar tonight where Mayo schooled Pat Gilroy's side from start to finish to keep alive their hopes of a NFL Division One semi-final berth.
Mayo will need to beat Kerry in the Kingdom next week but if they play like they did tonight against a side whose place in the final four is guaranteed they will have every chance.
Dublin, in contrast, will be destroyed in Cork if Gilroy doesn't identify the cause of an anaemic performance that lacked structure, hunger and discipline.
They ended the game with 13 men, after Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly were correctly dismissed in the second half for off-the-ball incidents. The departure of the latter came via a second yellow card, shortly after the forward's first point in the 48th minute. Indeed, such was the paucity of Dublin attacks, their first wide did not arrive until the 53rd minute.
In total, they accrued seven yellows and two reds as a beating turned into a hammering in the second half.
The first half was bad enough from a Dublin perspective, with Conor Mortimer pointing five times to claim his spot as Mayo's all-time leading scorer.
Dublin were being outfought and outplayed in midfield and were particularly punished on their own kick-outs.
Michael Conroy (0-04) and Alan Dillon (0-03) were among the beneficiaries as Mayo punished every misplaced Dublin pass with accurate and incisive interplay prior to some ruthless finishing.
Dublin, at times, looked disinterested and only managed three points in the first 33 minutes. Their apparent apathy was emphasised by Tomás Quinn in the closing minutes of the half, when he followed up a pointed free by dropping another close range effort into the grateful arms of the Mayo goalkeeper when it seemed easier to score.
A third soft free was awarded, so he could make amends and close the gap, but the sense was Dublin couldn't have been worse after the break.
They were.
The introduction of Eamonn Fennell in midfield made little difference, as centre-half back Donal Vaughan rampaged through it twice for points in the opening minutes and Mortimer pointed another free to almost put Mayo out of sight.
Dublin's discipline began to unravel, and when Flynn swung an elbow in the 40th minute their numbers were reduced. And, Mayo kept scoring.
Mortimer ended the night with eight points, while Conroy and Dillon shared that amount evenly between them on a memorable night for Mayo football in front of a crowd of over 10,000.