WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue football coach Barry Odom bit his lip, seemingly clamping off the inclination to say the wrong thing.
Everyone in the stadium heard referee Bryan Banks' explanation of why linebacker JoJo Hayden was assessed a roughing the passer penalty late in the first half. More difficult to decipher was the answer to the only question that mattered: What should Hayden have done instead?
"He said we landed on him too hard," Odom said after the 38-26 loss. He continued, his dry delivery unsuccessfully hiding his tongue-in-cheek tone.
"We have to work on our positioning once you leave your feet and tackle someone how to land. It's my fault. I haven't trained our players to land correctly on the tackle."
Hayden appeared to be talking to officials as the teams left the field for halftime. He said that conversation was not about the roughing the passer flag. Instead, it was about what he could and could not say during an opponent's field goal attempt to avoid a penalty.
He also left without an understanding of the mechanics which would have avoided the penalty. When asked if he understood what he physically needed to do on a similar play in the future to avoid the flag, he said, "Um," then after a long pause, "land on him better."
One play earlier, Hayden also had been flagged for roughing the passer, but the officials waved it off. On third-and-goal from the 10, Hayden came from Brown's blindside, dove toward him as the pass was released, took him down to the ground at the spot of Browne's release, then rolled off him.
The pass fell incomplete, but multiple officials threw flags. Banks announced "body weight" as the factor which made the hit qualify as roughing.
Article 9.a.4 of the NCAA rule book says a defensive player, "when it is obvious the ball has been thrown," cannot take the quarterback down by "forcibly driving the passer to the ground and landing on the passer with action that punishes the player."
Safe to say Purdue's head coach didn't agree with this call pic.twitter.com/bi285fTGWU
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 17, 2026
Officials are not available for comment after the game. While the Big Ten has released statements after multiple officiating snafus this season, those usually result from mistakes in game operations, not subjective calls. Teams routinely submit plays to the league office for review, but those conversations do not always become public.
The resulting incomplete pass would have forced a field goal try. Instead, Washington had first down at the 5. Brian Bonner scored on a 1-yard touchdown run two plays later.
Purdue pulled as close as 24-20 in the second half and 31-26 in the fourth quarter, but could never again equalize the score.
Report card: Purdue offense can't solve Ryan Walters' test in loss to Washington
"It was a big-time play, but you look at the course of the game and there's going to be a lot of big plays and deciding points and factors," Odom said. "That was a momentum swing for sure, but also, you've got to find a way to overcome it."
Hayden, who had one of Purdue's three interceptions of Brown, similarly brushed off the impact of the call.
"At the end of the day, it is what it is," Hayden said. "You can't put the game in the ref's hands."
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Roughing the passer for body weight? Purdue football tries to understand what to do differently