Tie Difficult to Take for Syracuse : Nonconference: No. 6 Orangemen miss two late field-goal attempts against Texas in 21-21 deadlock.

It was a tie that felt like a loss.

The sixth-ranked Syracuse Orangemen, upset that they were passed by Notre Dame and Tennessee in the rankings, were looking for respect Saturday against Texas.

Instead, they ended up with a 21-21 tie.

“I am just in shock right now,” said Syracuse quarterback Marvin Graves. “So many things happened during the game that could have made it go either way. Coming up even is just a shock. I know it’s a tie, but it feels like a loss.”

Pat O’Neill’s second missed field-goal attempt in the waning minutes, a 33-yarder with eight seconds remaining, ended Syracuse’s chances. O’Neill also missed from 47 yards with 2:50 remaining.

“We came in No. 6, so they (Texas) should act like they won,” Syracuse Coach Paul Pasqualoni said. “It’s a great feather in their cap. We need to take this as a loss, because we have veteran players and should have come in and won.”

The Orangemen (2-0-1) put themselves in position to win after Tony Jones intercepted Texas’ Shea Morenz with 1:34 left.

With the help of a roughing the passer penalty on Texas, which put the ball on the Longhorns’ 30 with 33 seconds left, the Orangemen ran the ball on four of their next five plays, setting up the 33-yard attempt by O’Neill. But the ball went wide right.

Two attempts by Texas (0-1-1) to pass the ball downfield went incomplete as time expired.

It was the first tie for Syracuse since a 20-20 final against Pittsburgh in 1990. It was the Longhorns’ first tie since 15-15 against Oklahoma in 1984.

The Longhorns’ special teams and defense, which set up or scored 18 points, bailed out an offense that struggled most of the day.

Graves had two passes intercepted and completed 15 of 26 for 181 yards against a young and inexperienced Texas defense.

Syracuse led, 14-3, with 3:40 left in the first half, but the Longhorns scored the next 18 points, capped by Scott Szeredy’s 27-yard field goal for a 21-14 lead with 7:34 left in the third quarter.

The Orangemen tied the score, 21-21, with 2:23 remaining in the third quarter when Graves connected with Brian Picucci on a two-yard touchdown pass.

Terry Richardson had 102 yards, Marcus Lee added 60 and Kirby Dar Dar had 51 to lead a ground attack that had 248 yards. Syracuse finished with 428 yards of offense.

Morenz completed 14 of 25 passes for 80 yards. Texas finished with 201 yards.