“There’s a typo on page 2.”

“To drop the ball,” to be guilty of a major oversight, to make a significant mistake.  Usage note:  This expression, used often in the investment banking world, is similar in meaning to “fall asleep at the wheel (or switch),” which will be the subject of a future FEotD post.  However, today’s phrase is more effective because bankers respond so passionately to that good jock talk.  It must be noted that one risks career suicide by using this expression about someone higher than you in the investment banking hierarchy.  An associate, chagrined after a tongue-lashing from a senior VP on the “deal team” (another future FEotD) and in a moment of weakness, might confess to his office-mates (occupying a tiny, three-person internal closet with no windows), “Yeah, I really dropped the ball on that one, the global map of company operations in the pitchbook shades a little bit too much of Rhode Island.”

Bankers love that good jock talk.

“Blocking and tackling,” gerund, the fundamentals or basics.  Usage note:  Several erudite sociologists have noted that the rarefied world of investment banking is made up of two main types- those who wish they were traders and those who wish they were athletes.  Today’s expression is a favorite for those who fall in the latter camp.  A vice president, when giving instructions to a sleep-deprived, drooling associate about a worthless presentation that the client will never look at but will keep the ill-used associate in the office until about 3 a.m., might say:  “We really need to watch our blocking and tackling on this pitch.”