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Whether you think about it's a big or a small change, Ben does need to learn to throw the ball away more often. I find the Trib quote to be solely interesting again, since you could possibly interpret it in a few of ways:
1). The simplest - Rooney doesn't want to publicly malign the personnel on the nauseating line because that is not good team-building.
2). We had the personnel for it, but injuries and other factors out of our control kept the same five guys from playing together week-in and week-out and they never had the moment to form good chemistry.
3). There's a difference between pass protecting for your average QB, who ideally gets rid of the ball when the suck up to starts to break down and the heat is getting close, and pass protecting for Big Ben, who usually views the end of the designed monkey tricks as just another opportunity to exercise his improvisational abilities.
I'm not throwing out the third possibility as an excuse for poor performances in dated protection - like getting lit up by Aldon and Justin Smith against the 49ers , for example. It also does not excuse substandard blocking for the sustained game. I just think there is a difference between developing offensive linemen to the point where they can pass protect for your usual pocket passer, and getting them to learn the nuances and idiosyncrasies of how to keep Ben alive when he decides he wants to run and touch both sidelines before throwing the ball.
