It sealed a first Championship win for the Pilgrims under Wayne Rooney, who would have been thrilled with the character shown by his side against opponents who had picked up maximum points from all of their previous four league games this season.
Sunderland led at the interval after a 24th minute penalty from Patrick Roberts, but Argyle staged a stirring second half fightback to lead 2-1 by the 73rd minute with an own goal from Daniel Ballard and a Ryan Hardie spot kick.
It looked as though the Pilgrims’ wait for a first Championship win of the season would continue when Romaine Mundle equalised in the 86th minute, but Edwards had other ideas as he fired home in the third minute of added time to clinch a thrilling, memorable victory.
Goalkeeper Dan Grimshaw made his Championship debut against Sunderland in place of the injured Conor Hazard as one of three changes from Argyle’s last league game, the 1-0 home defeat by Stoke City a fortnight earlier.
Grimshaw’s only previous game for the Pilgrims since signing from Blackpool last month had been when they lost 2-0 away to Watford in the Carabao Cup second round.
The other two changes saw Callum Wright and Michael Obafemi, the loan signing from Burnley, come into the side instead of Jordan Houghton and Hardie, who were both on the substitutes’ bench.
It was Obafemi’s full Championship debut after two previous substitute appearances, although he did start against Watford.
Left-back Bali Mumba played his 100th game for Argyle and it came against the club where he began his career and made his first team debut for Sunderland at the age of 16.
Swedish midfielder Rami Al Hajj, Argyle’s transfer deadline day signing from Danish club Odense, was on the bench against the league leaders, as was newly-signed goalkeeper Marko Marosi.
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