Bears' Eberflus takes responsibility after firing second offensive coordinator in 10 months

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Matt Eberflus insisted he takes responsibility for the Chicago Bears' failures on offense.

He also realizes he's on his third play-caller in 2 1/2 seasons as coach after firing an offensive coordinator for the second time in 10 months. He let Shane Waldron go this week and promoted passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, hoping he can solve the problems and get the most out of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.

“I take full accountability for that,” Eberflus said Wednesday, a day after the Bears announced the change. “I take full responsibility for that, and it’s got to get better. It’s gotta get better. The details of creativity have to improve and it’s got to improve this week.”

Waldron lasted just nine games after he was hired in January to replace the fired Luke Getsy. Brown takes over an offense that ranks near the bottom of the NFL.

The Bears are averaging fewer yards per game than only two teams. New England is one of them, and the Patriots beat Chicago 19-3 at Soldier Field on Sunday.

“I’m not really looking into quick fixes," Brown said. "I want long-term solutions to kind of get us going in the right direction. The goal again is to have success and have success immediately. I’m not doing anything to be a loser or have a loser’s mentality. My players don’t either.”

Williams was looking forward to seeing how the offense performs with Brown calling the plays.

“I think we’ll do a good job of marrying everything up together, making everything look the same,” Williams said. “And then from there, you’ll get a few easier passes, a few extra layups. I think it’ll help us in the run game. I think it’ll help us in the pass game being able to do that. And then, I think from there it provides a little bit more explosiveness for us as an offense.”

The Bears have gone without a touchdown in back-to-back games for the first time since 2004. It’s been 23 consecutive possessions without a TD since they scored in the final minute at Washington in Week 8, when they lost on a Hail Mary pass by Jayden Daniels.

The offense has two touchdowns in 34 drives in the three games since Chicago’s bye. The Bears won three in a row prior to their off week, and Williams and the offense looked as if they were finding their rhythm, even if they were doing it against struggling teams.

Players expressed frustration about the offense to Eberflus. But he insisted they didn't call for any firings.

“I don’t think anybody really asked for (Waldron) to be gone,” receiver DJ Moore said. “We expressed our frustration, but never to have somebody’s livelihood taken away. I mean, it’s hard, but on to Thomas, and we got his back.”

Brown was hired as Chicago's passing game coordinator after interviewing for the job that went to Waldron. He's now in a familiar spot, taking over play-calling duties during the season and doing it with a No. 1 overall pick at quarterback.

Carolina's offensive coordinator last season, Brown took over play-calling duties from coach Frank Reich, who eventually took them back before he was fired with the Panthers at 1-10 and quarterback Bryce Young struggling.

Brown is now working with Williams, who seemed to be progressing before taking steps back during this skid. The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner was sacked nine times against New England and acknowledged he's been holding onto the ball too long at times.

“I took a few sacks that I shouldn’t have," Williams said. "I think that getting back to getting the ball out of my hands, being decisive is really important. That needs to start now.”

As for the decision to fire Waldron?

“I don’t get to choose the decisions, nor do I get to choose whether the decision is good, bad or indifferent," he said. "My job is to listen and from there go do my job.”

Notes: The Bears released veteran G Nate Davis even though they are banged up on the line, after signing him to a three-year, $30 million contract prior to last season. Davis reported back tightness on Sunday morning and was sent home prior to the game. He started 13 of the 16 games he played in for Chicago. He dealt with a lingering groin injury during training camp that popped up again after he started the first two games, and then fell on the depth chart.

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Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams looks down as he listens to reporters during an NFL football news conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago Bears new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown reacts as he listens to reporters during an NFL football news conference at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago Bears new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown smiles as he listens to reporters during an NFL football news conference at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus speaks during an NFL football news conference at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus listens to reporters during an NFL football news conference at Halas Hall in Lake Forest, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday handed a suspended prison sentence to a former lawmaker who was found guilty of embezzling funds while leading a group supporting Korean survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery.

Yoon Meehyang, who was also convicted of fraudulently receiving government subsidies and unlawfully collecting donations, didn’t attend the verdict, which confirmed a lower court’s sentence of a year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.

In a statement on Facebook, Yoon described her conviction as “unjust,” saying she and her colleagues handled the group’s funds properly and “had not pursued private interests.”

Yoon’s group, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said it plans to return the government subsidies linked to the fraud charges but criticized the court for failing to see the “substantive truth.”

“Despite our efforts over the past four years, we failed to achieve a ‘not guilty’ result with the Supreme Court, but I want to use this opportunity to say once again — my colleagues and I are innocent,” Yoon wrote.

Controversy surrounding Yoon and her group erupted in 2020 when one of the slavery victims, Lee Yong-soo, accused her of misusing donations and other funds and spending little on the victims.

Yoon, who had just begun her term as a lawmaker for the liberal opposition Democratic Party, denied allegations that she and the group used the funds for private gain and insisted that Lee’s claim was based on a misunderstanding.

Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to front-line military brothels to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers. Hundreds were registered with the South Korean government as victims but only eight of them are still alive.

Prosecutors indicted Yoon in September 2020 over embezzlement, fraud and other charges, months before the Democratic Party expelled her over separate suspicions of inappropriate real-estate investments. She finished her four-year term as a legislator last year as an independent.

The Supreme Court upheld a verdict by the Seoul High Court in September last year, which found Yoon guilty of fraudulently obtaining 65.2 million won ($46,300) in government subsidies from 2014 to 2020 by falsely reporting labor costs, and of embezzling 79 million won ($56,150) of the group’s funds.

The court also ruled that Yoon violated laws by collecting donations through unregistered accounts as the group organized the funeral of Kim Bok-dong, a sexual slavery victim and activist who died in 2019.

The issues of sexual slavery, forced labor and other abuses during Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II have long been a source of tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.

FILE - Activist Yoon Meehyang, center left, marches toward the Japanese Embassy during a funeral ceremony of Kim Bok-dong, a former South Korean sex slave, in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

FILE - Activist Yoon Meehyang speaks during a news conference at National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea on May 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)