Part of the reason for the 49ers offensive success in the last two wins is due to the improvement of left guard Mike Iupati. This is an assessment of Iupati after charting his first three games of the season.

Dallas – yielded a quarterback hit, a sack and a pressure, and overall his poor run blocks outweighed his positive run blocks by two

Chicago – Yielded one pressure and had four more positive run blocks than pass blocks.

Arizona – Iupati really struggled against Calais Campbell in the first half, with two pass-block whiffs and a holding that was not called. Overall, his negative run blocks outweighed his positive blocks by four. However, in the second half, Iupati looked like he started to gain confidence against Campbell, particularly in pass protection.

After things turned for Iupati in the second half at Arizona, Iupati continued to improve in the wins against Philadelphia and Kansas City.

Philadelphia – His run blocking was excellent was six more positive blocks than negative. With pass blocking, he did whiff once, but made up for it with generally solid protection throughout the game.

Kansas City – Run blocking improved even more, particularly his ability to pull, find the linebacker and block him. No whiffs in pass protection against the Chiefs.

“I couldn’t kick block,” Iupati said about the early-season woes. “My leg was weak.”

Iupati was talking about his left leg, which was broken just above the ankle in January’s NFC championship game.

“I am a fighter, and I wanted to fight with my teammates,” he said. Now, it appears he’s regaining strength in his left leg and the ability to kick block, which entails moving laterally and angling backward in pass protection.

The clip from football-tutorials.com illustrates the technique. It’s possible Iupati will continue to gain strength in his leg and recapture even more of his quickness and power.