Which Teams Got Hosed by the 2015 NFL Schedule?

The slate is set.

The National Football League released the full schedule for 2015 on Tuesday. It begins with the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots playing host to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, September 10, and wraps up when the St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers meet at the site of Super Bowl 50 on January 3, 2016.

It's a slate filled with big-time matchups. The Seattle Seahawks travel to face the Green Bay Packers in an NFC title-game rematch in Week 2. On Sunday, November 29, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will once again square off in prime time, when the Patriots head west to battle the Denver Broncos.

It's also a schedule that left a few teams wondering if they'd broken a mirror or something. Walked under a ladder, perhaps. Maybe left their shoes on the counter.

At any rate, whether it's with tough sledding overall or a particularly brutal stretch of games, a black cat crossed the paths of these clubs with the schedule's release.

Of course, for some of them, that's nothing new.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

We already knew that the Steelers would be kind of hosed where the 2015 schedule is concerned.

We knew that the Steelers would have the toughest slate of games in the NFL by virtue of the .579 2014 winning percentage of their 2015 opponents.

That's 170 percentage points higher than the Atlanta Falcons, who have the NFL's "easiest" slate this year.

We also knew that the Steelers would be playing their first three games without tailback Le'Veon Bell, whom the league suspended for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

Well, it turns out that the scheduling gods were only getting started where the Steelers are concerned.

Barring the opener at New England, it isn't necessarily the other two games the Steelers won't have Bell for. They will likely be favored at home against the 49ers in Week 2 and the following week in St. Louis, even without their Pro Bowl tailback.

However, what happens after Pittsburgh's Week 11 bye?

At Seattle, Indianapolis, at Cincinnati, Denver, at Baltimore. Five straight games against playoff teams from last year, including the AFC runners-up and at the NFC champion Seahawks.

Those are road games against both Super Bowl teams from a year ago, because why not?

That's just mean.

Oh, and if CenturyLink Field isn't loud enough for you?

The Steelers also play the Chiefs in Kansas City on October 25.

San Francisco 49ers

After an offseason of tremendous upheaval in San Francisco, there's going to be more than a little pressure on new head coach Jim Tomsula to get the 49ers off to a hot start in 2015.

Yeah. Good luck with that.

The schedule-makers slapped the 49ers with the third-hardest schedule in the NFL this year, and it looks like that schedule is going to keep slapping the team right through the season's first two months.

Let's assume, for the sake of the blood pressure of Niners fans, that San Fran gets past a scrappy Minnesota Vikings team in Week 1.

After that, the sledding gets tough—quick.

At the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2. At the division rival Cardinals in Week 3. The Green Bay Packers in Santa Clara in Week 4.

Provided the 49ers survive that gauntlet, they then travel east to face the New York Giants in prime time before heading back home for matchups with the Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks.

That all happens before the calendar turns to November, folks.

Buffalo Bills

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

At some point, in the history of all that is and all that shall be, someone affiliated with the Buffalo Bills did something to make the people who design the software that creates the NFL's schedule very, very angry.

Either that, or the universe just hates the city of Buffalo.

Maybe it's Lake Erie. That would explain a few things.

Two years ago, as Chris Brown of the team's website reported, the Bills complained to the NFL after noticing that a lot of their opponents had extra time to prepare before facing them.

Well, the Scheduletron 6419 (What? We don't know that it's not called that) heard those complaints—and found a whole new way to hose the Bills.

Buffalo at least gets to play at home for the first two weeks of the season—against the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, last year's AFC title-game participants.

From November 9 through Christmas, home will be a fond memory. Over that six-game stretch, the Bills play all of once at home—in Week 13 against the Houston Texans.

I'm quite sure the fact that right about that time last year a snowpocalypse (or as they call it in Buffalo, winter) hit Western New York and forced the Bills to play a game in Detroit had nothing to do with that extended road trip.

Nope. Coincidence.

Cincinnati Bengals

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

Much like the Pittsburgh Steelers, we knew that the Cincinnati Bengals were in for a tough go in 2015. The team has the second-toughest slate in the NFL, with an opponent winning percentage of .563.

Granted, things don't start out too badly. The Bengals play only two playoff teams (the Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks) in September or October, and the Bengals get Seattle in the Queen City for a 1 p.m. ET start in Week 5.

However, the bill for that easy early slate comes due late. The Bengals drew a rare back-to-back prime-time two-fer, with road games at San Francisco and Denver in Weeks 15 and 16.

Because we all know how much Andy Dalton loves prime time.

Those games are sandwiched in between AFC North tilts against the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Not the kind of December that's going to make a team jolly or make it easy for Dalton and the Bengals to make a fifth straight trip to the playoffs.

Chicago Bears

Mike Roemer/Associated Press

This year was going to be different.

After a disastrous 2014, new head coach John Fox was going to execute one of his patented quick turnarounds. Jay Cutler was going to play like an NFL quarterback instead of just getting paid like one. The Bears were going to make some noise in the NFC North.

And then the schedule came out, fans remembered who Cutler was and the air came out of the balloon.

Mind you, it isn't that the Bears' schedule is exceptionally brutal as a whole. The team's opponents have a combined winning percentage of .531, 13th in the NFL.

But September. Oh, man. September.

The Bears open the season with three straight games against 2014 playoff teams, including a Week 1 matchup with the hated Green Bay Packers and a Week 3 trip to the Emerald City to face the Seattle Seahawks.

Starting the season off against teams that went a combined 35-13 a year ago isn't conducive to a hot start for Da Bears, especially given that Chicago is 2-11 in its last 13 meetings against the Packers.

Oh, well. The hope was fun while it lasted.