"AFTER SPENDING 12 seasons in charge of the security detail that protected the Colts' Peyton Manning, Howard Mudd was coaxed out of retirement by Andy Reid a couple of weeks ago to help keep Michael Vick in one piece.

Aside from the fact that they both can hum the ball, Manning and Vick are about as different as two quarterbacks can be.

One is the prototypical pocket passer. The other is, well, uh, not the prototypical pocket passer.

In the 12 years Mudd spent as the Colts' offensive line coach, his unit gave up a league-best 227 sacks in 6,746 pass attempts, which comes out to one sack every 29.7 pass attempts. Six times in those 12 years, the Colts finished either first or tied for first in sacks allowed. Two other times they finished second. Gave up more than 23 sacks just once in those 12 years (30 in 2001).

"The first thing our offensive staff did every week was figure out the protection schemes in the passing game," said former Colts coach Jim Mora, who hired Mudd in 1998. "They were really good at coming up with ways to protect Peyton.

"They prepared the team - the offensive line, the backs, the receivers, Peyton - so he wouldn't get sacked. Because he was the key guy. They didn't want him on his back. Howard was a big part of that with the protection schemes each week.

"Now, Peyton added to that efficiency because he was smart. He understood where a free guy might be coming. He understood where his 'hot' receiver was going to be. He got rid of the ball quickly. Having him back there doing all that stuff helped. But Howard was terrific at figuring out ways to keep him safe."

Vick made tremendous strides as a quarterback last season, as his 100.2 passer rating and his plus-15 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio indicate. And while he has speed that Manning can only dream about, he doesn't have Peyton's ability to read a blitz or adjust protections, which was a major problem in the second half of last season when opposing defenses blitzed the hell out of him.

Eagles quarterbacks - Vick and Kevin Kolb - were sacked 50 times last season, the second most in the league. Vick was decked 34 times in 372 attempts, or once every 10.9 throws.

"I don't like the number," Mudd said."