Like the rest of the league, the Cincinnati Bengals learned their 2015 fate during Tuesday's schedule release event.
In short, it isn't pretty.
Head coach Marvin Lewis and the front office knew this going into the affair, though, as NFL on ESPN illustrates:
Teams with the toughest strength of schedules in 2015: @steelers - .578 @Bengals - .563 @49ers - .561 @Seahawks - .559 @AZCardinals - .557
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) April 21, 2015
Things are so tough, in fact, that the team needed to petition the league to play consecutive games on the West Coast, per ESPN.