As the opening game of the 2011 NFL season moves along tonight, now seems as good a time as any to have a look at our Chicago Bears, and their prospects for this season.  The Bears added a plethora of players to their roster, and feel they can replicate, if not improve upon, their showing from a year ago.  That showing was a trip to the NFC Championship Game.  A game they lost to hated rival Green Bay, who then went on to win the Super Bowl.  That defeat should leave a bad taste in their mouths, but can they really get back?

The answer is "no."  Now, they won’t be bad by any means, but so many things aligned for the Bears last season, and they failed to truly address their major weaknesses this offseason.  You want details?  Okay.

Last season, the Bears succeeded in spite of themselves – most of the time.  Their first few wins were pretty iffy, as the Bears lucked out from either a ref call (Detroit), the opposing team bumbling themselves (Dallas), or bad penalties by the opposition (Green Bay).  Then they had that infamous game against the Giants.  You know the one, where Jay Cutler got sacked nine times before suffering a concussion, all in the first half.  The Bears were exposed, and backup Todd Collins was simply awful.

That loss sent the Bears into a funk, as they lost to pushovers Miami and Washington, before barely winning at Buffalo.  After this, the Bears did, indeed, put some nice wins together, as the offensive line kind of played better, even though their better play was the result of a huge adjustment to Mike Martz’s offense.

Come playoff time, the Bears got an easy matchup against Seattle, before losing to Green Bay. 

Certain problems plagued the Bears all year: the offensive line was atrocious at times, and the receiving corps was rather average.  Cutler did the most with what he had, but at the end of the day, it simply wasn’t enough.  The defense was great all year, but ran out of gas against the Packers.

So what has changed?  Not much.  The Bears seem to think that the addition of Roy Williams is going to make the receiving corps one that is to be feared.  But Roy Williams showed in the preseason that he isn’t very good.  So now opposing defenses know that Williams isn’t a threat, and can cover the other players.  Gone is the one matchup nightmare, Greg Olsen, so the Bears no longer have a tight end that can stretch the defense.

Then there is the offensive line.  Rookie tackle Gabe Carimi is a good addition, and it’s nice to see them draft for their needs, but the Bears didn’t go out and get a veteran lineman, even after Olin Kreutz signed with New Orleans.  So now their line has two young players at tackle, two young players at guard, and a veteran center who is actually a guard.  Problems persist.

Besides that the Bears haven’t actually improved anywhere, the NFL has an odd tendency to even things out.  The Bears succeeded despite their ineptitude last season, and that will not happen this year.  The season starts with a huge test against Atlanta, and doesn’t get any easier.  Things could get ugly in a hurry. 

I’m predicting a 6-10 season for the Bears. They will start out 0-3, before beating Carolina.  They will beat Minnesota and Detroit at home.  Their road wins will be at Oakland and Denver.  Their last win will be against Seattle at home December 18^th.  It will be a long season for the Bears, and they will be left with a lot of questions after it.  Unfortunately, because they are building the team around a bad offensive system with a clueless coordinator, they may be left with unanswered questions for a long time.