Some cliches are fairly matter of fact, but there's a certain strain of poetic cliche much favoured by commentators of the old school. 'Fluffed his lines' is one of those cliches, used when a player has a golden opportunity to be a hero but shanks his shot so completely that only a Shakesperian off-cut will do as a description. The best example of line fluffing is John Terry's slip 'n' miss in the 2008 Champions League final, though even an occasion as harrowing as that doesn't quite need a reference to the theatre to get across the magnitude.
