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Taunting penalties spike as officials set tone for season

A regular analysis of strategy, decisions and calls that impacted the week of NFL play -- with help from ESPN senior analytics specialist Brian Burke among other resources. (Here's an analysis of the play that injured New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.)

Through Sunday night's game, NFL officials had called 13 taunting penalties -- nearly three times as many as they compiled in the first two weeks of the 2015 season (five). In fact, the league is nearly halfway to the total number of taunting penalties it called in all 17 weeks of last season (24), according to ESPN Stats & Information.