The meta answer is
WRONG NUMBER.
Hopefully, while filling the grid a few of these clues struck you as a bit off? Isn't the good cloud number nine, not two? Didn't Marilyn's dress sway [hat tip @Bruce] in "The Seven Year Itch," not the "Five?" The poor five ball seems to be taking the heat earned by the eight, etc. Come to think of it, isn't the unwinnable situation a Catch-22, not 11?
Well, it turns out that the title was both an example and an instruction. Exactly eleven of the clues make reference to familiar phrases that contain a number, and there are no other numbers in the clues (hence the 'couple' in 33A and the lack of 'three times' in 45A). But in each case the correct number has been replaced with a random alternate:
6A Result of
five strikes [should be
3]
26A “High
ten!” [should be
5]
43A
Ten feet under, in a way [should be
6]
49A “I wouldn’t touch that with a
seven foot pole!” [should be
10]
60A How you might refer to a Spinal Tap amp that goes to
thirteen, slangily [should be
11]
1D
Five-year itch, for example [should be
7]
12D In a ____ (behind the
five ball) [should be
8]
15D It might follow a declaration of “
Three can play that game!” [should be
2]
32D State of being on cloud
two [should be
9]
43D Person who might be teased as “
three eyes,” stereotypically [should be
4]
46D ____ the slate clean (go back to square
two) [should be
1]
OK, so we just need to take the first letter of those eleven entries and we get...OGNERUMRBNW. Hmm.
Oh, maybe grid order, duh: UOMRGBNWER. Hmm.
Oh, hang on. Notice that the corrected numbers run from 1 to 11, inclusive, without any duplications. How about if we order the letters that way? Well, then we get the answer: WRONG NUMBER, which is both a two word phrase and an apt description of what's going on in both the title and the clues.
Thanks again for all the kind words, hope you enjoyed it.
