An unmarked Gerrard headed over the Blackburn goal on eight minutes after good work by Crouch and Pennant. He probably would have been better waiting for the ball to drop for the volley.
On 12 mins Riise went on a mazy run from his own half that almost broke the deadlock. After evading four Blackburn players he passed to Pennant who found Crouch's head but the ball was played back out and found Riise again. Friedel could only parry the shot to Crouch who hit the ball from six yards only to see Lucas Neill clear of the line.
Benni McCarthy put Blackburn in front with his fourth of the season on 17 minutes. Emerton found Bentley from defence who played a decent ball into the area that evaded a leaping Nonda but fell kindly for McCarthy to fire across Reina's goal and nestle in the corner of the net.
Two minutes later he could have had another as Reina spilled a tame shot but he gathered before McCarthy could follow it in.
Bentley received a yellow on 27 after Riise went to ground rather theatrically after an innocuous trip 30 yards from goal.
Gerrard hit a decent shot on 34 after a clever step over on the corner of the area bought him space. The ball fizzed past Friedel's upright with the goalkeeper looking beaten.
In truth though, Blackburn were looking good value for their one goal lead.
Alonso almost played Bellamy in with a snap pass but Friedel raced out of his area to collect at the Welshman's feet. Neill was shown a yellow just before half time as Pennant was upended en route to goal.
Despite a late flourish by Liverpool they went in a goal down.
H/T
Blackburn showed no sign of settling for the one goal as they went forward at every opportunity.
With Pennant and Finnan to name but two both surrendering possession so easily, Liverpool had no chance of creating any meaningful moves.
McCarthy was looking a real handful and it was left to Carragher to bring him to the ground on one run in the 52nd min.
A clearly under confident Pennant was replaced by Luis Garcia as Benitez attempted to inject some kind of rhythm to his stuttering side. It looked to have worked as Liverpool almost immediately stepped up the pace.
Savage was shown yellow after a cynical challenge on Gerrard in the 57th min as he tried to quell the Red's resurgence.
The goal nearly came as Alonso fired a beautifully weighted free kick to Crouch who headed across to Garcia who rushed in a split second too late.
It was all hands to the pumps as Liverpool began to lay siege to the Blackburn half with shots flying in. It was no surprise at all when Bellamy popped up in the 64th to head
Riise's corner past a despairing Friedel.
Liverpool refused to take their foot of the gas and looked a team reborn as Garcia, Crouch, Gerrard and Alonso all took pot shots at the Blackburn goal.
Aaron Mokoena and Paul Gallagher replaced Tugay and Pedersen as a worried Mark
Hughes tried to freshen his team up.
Hyypia was shown yellow after tripping Savage but the resulting freekick came to nothing.
Roberts came on for McCarthy with thirteen minutes to go, the South African had ran his heart out for cause.
Liverpool's charge ran out of steam too as the game began to stumble to an entertaining conclusion with chances for both sides going amiss.
David Bentley could have put Blackburn ahead in the 82nd minutes as he capitalised on the confusion substitute Roberts had caused when tangling with Hyypia and Finnan. Reina was equal to his chipped shot though.
A point apiece was probably about right but not with the hordes of disgruntled Liverpool fans leaving before the final whistle.