Sunderland missed a chance to take a 50th minute lead at Ewood Park when, after Christopher Samba fouled Daryl Murphy, Dean Whitehead's poorly-struck penalty was saved by Brad Friedel.
Shortly afterwards McCarthy showed Sunderland how it should be done, when after Danny Higginbotham hand-balled in the box, he scored from the penalty-spot.
Sunderland were then reduced to 10 men when experienced former Blackburn striker Dwight Yorke -- a former teammate of Sunderland manager Roy Keane and Rovers boss Mark Hughes at Manchester United -- was sent-off for a second bookable offense 19 minutes from full-time.
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