the shrewdness of apes

any football fan with a rudimentary understanding of the English language would often be a bit flummoxed by the grammatical gymnastics and gyrations flooding the airwaves on autumn Saturdays and Sundays. but one word in particular has been boiling my blood - "unanswered". used as an adjective, a typical example would be "and the Altoona Miners have run up 23 unanswered points on the Reading Riveters to takea 23-21 lead". except that very often, the announcers use this word, even though the points have been "answered" and they should instead be using the word "consecutive". take yesterday's Bears-Giants game for example. the Giants led 14-0, but the Bears charged back to a 28-14 advantage. when the Giants then scored again later, i heard "the Bears scored 28 unanswered points, but now the Giants have scored to get back within 7". that score was the answer. unanswered points can only occur if they are consecutive and if they are the final points of the game (or the most recent points scored at the time the statement is made). any other usage is incorrect and highly annoying. thank you, i feel better.

*UPDATE* - check out this CSTB post for the correct application of the word.