Niall Quinn destroyed a catalogue of statistics to guide Sunderland to victory here, but the most important details for the 35-year-old would have been the two goals that ended his 11-game barren run in the Premiership.
Before yesterday's match the visitors had not won at Ewood Park since the 1946-47 season and Blackburn had never lost a Premiership game on St Stephen's Day.
Sunderland, who had not won away since September, cruised to the points, inflicting the heaviest defeat this term on a Rovers team reduced to 10 men following the 69th-minute dismissal of the defender Craig Short following a tussle with the substitute Kevin Kyle.
"The first-half performance was the worst 45 minutes I have seen from my players since I came to the club," said Blackburn manager Graeme Souness.
"We had three one-on-ones with their goalkeeper, yet we didn't make him save any of them and you can't do that at this level. We were second to every ball in the first half and, by the end, we had made Sunderland look like Brazil.
"They just picked us off after the sending-off. I didn't see the incident, but it was a miserable day for us without question."
Blackburn could have scored twice before Quinn brought a touch of reality to the proceedings with his opening goal.
Damien Duff, operating as a makeshift striker alongside Corrado Grabbi, saw two excellent chances go abegging in the opening 10 minutes. The Republic of Ireland winger was let down by his first touch on both occasions, and with three strikers, Mark Hughes, Matt Jansen and Egil Ostenstad, on the bench, Souness may have wondered about the wisdom of his team selection.
Quinn's first came courtesy of Jason McAteer's corner which had been volleyed across goal by Claudio Reyna to the far post, from where Quinn sidefooted the ball into the net from a tight angle.
Quinn then doubled his tally on 31 minutes when he headed Julio Arca's free-kick into the far corner of the net, leaving the goalkeeper Brad Friedel helpless.
Reid withdrew Quinn from the action halfway through the second half, denying him the chance to become the first player to score a hat-trick in this fixture since Simon Garner in Blackburn's 6-1 win 15 years ago, and he admitted that he needs to preserve the striker's ageing limbs.
"People don't realise how good a player Quinny is on the ground and he is a great target man for us. There is no limit to what we can do with him up there," he said.
Kevin Kilbane's 90th-minute tap-in following Friedel's save from Kevin Phillips's shot across goal simply gave a realistic reflection of Sunderland's dominance.
BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill (Taylor 66), Short, Berg (Jansen 45), Johansson, Gillespie, Flitcroft, Dunn, Mahon, Duff, Grabbi (Hughes 45). Subs Not Used: Ostenstad, Kelly. Sent Off: Short (69). Booked: Dunn.
SUNDERLAND: Sorensen, Haas, Williams, Thome, Gray, McAteer, McCann, Reyna, Arca (Kilbane 77), Quinn (Kyle 67), Phillips. Subs Not Used: Thirlwell, McCartney, Macho. Booked: Thome, Kyle. Goals: Quinn 17, 32, Kilbane 90.
Referee: C Wilkes (Gloucester).
