Former Ole Miss star Walter Nolen scores TD off strip sack for Arizona Cardinals
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Former Ole Miss stud defensive lineman Walter Nolen didn’t take long in his new life as an Arizona Cardinal to make a big impact.
In Week 12 of his rookie season in Arizona, the guy who once terrorized backfields in the SEC was doing it at the NFL level. During Sunday’s home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a play that started innocently ended with Nolen celebrating in the end zone, of all places.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence dropped back to pass deep in his own territory with the Cardinals down 7-0 and in need of a spark with nothing on the scoreboard late in the first quarter. Arizona got that spark from the most unlikely of places and the most unlikely of players, because 6-foot-4, 300-pound guys aren’t supposed to score touchdowns, in the SEC or in the NFL.
But that’s exactly what happened on Sunday with 2:26 left in that sluggish first quarter when Nolen recovered a strip sack of Lawrence, the former Clemson star, and barreled into the end zone to tie the game at 7-7.
Here is the play that Nolen will likely never forget:
Arizona is languishing this season at 3-7, so it needs victories in addition to big plays like the one Nolen provided. Nolen was a consensus All-American and first-team All-SEC selection at Ole Miss last year, but his collegiate journey began with 2 seasons at Texas A&M in 2022 and 2023.
He was the 16th overall pick by the Cardinals in the 2025 draft, so Arizona obviously had grand hopes for what Nolen could provide. Surely, the Cardinals were happy with their investment during Nolen’s unlikely touchdown rumble on Sunday.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
