LAKE FOREST, Ill. — No, John Fox was not lost. It just seemed like it.

He wore an orange tie, but this was not surprising. It’s a color he wore in Denver all the time.

But there he was, standing at the lectern inside Mugs Halas Auditorium, the very room he’ll soon be addressing his new players — the Chicago Bears.

This guy was just coaching the Denver Broncos in the playoffs. What was he doing here? Why was he standing in front of a backdrop jam-packed with Bears logos?

It seemed surreal. And that’s because it was.

Firing Marc Trestman was an easy move, but that was before there was an obvious candidate to replace him as the Bears’ head coach. Of course, that changed last week when John Elway and John Fox decided to have a “mutual parting.”

“John Fox is a proven winner and when he became available, honestly, the game changed,” Bears general manager Ryan Pace said.

Fox hadn’t even said a word yet, and you could already feel the relief in the room — both from Bears officials and those who cover the team on a daily basis. After three years of watching the Bears try to out-smart the rest of the league with unconventional decisions they tried desperately to justify, it was refreshing to see a new general manager simply spot the obvious target, secure the obvious target and then admit it was the obvious target.

No rambling justification was necessary. Pace’s opening statement lasted less than a minute. He got right to the point.

“The more time I spent with him and his family, the more it became apparent that he’s the perfect man to lead our charge,” Pace continued. “With that said, I’m extremely excited to introduce the new head coach of the Chicago Bears, John Fox.”

And with that, the disastrous Phil Emery-Marc Trestman era was put to rest.

With his usual shrug and straight-forward, energetic personality, Fox took the stage and said all the right things.

“Understate, overproduce,” he said, producing a motto the Bears desperately need to live and play by.

“I’m brutally honest,” Fox said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m not afraid or intimidated about telling people the truth.”

Gone are the days of raving about “great weeks of practice” after 55-14 losses. Gone are the days of refusing to say anything negative about the quarterback. Gone are the days of enabling a distracting wide receiver.

Fox made it clear Monday: The circus has left Halas Hall. Accountability is back. The Bears have an identity again.

And that, of course, is why Fox is perfect for the Bears. Give credit to Pace for understanding that and securing Fox has soon as he was available.

Remember, when Pace accepted the general manager job a week and a half ago, Fox was preparing for a playoff game against the Colts. He did not know Fox was even an option. But within “hours” of hearing Fox and the Broncos were splitting up, Pace was on the phone with the 59-year-old head coach with 13 years of NFL head coaching experience. By Wednesday, Fox was at Halas Hall. And Thursday, Pace and his wife, Stephanie, followed Fox back out to Denver where they included Fox’s wife, Robin, in the conversation and had a much less formal “second interview” to make sure it was a good fit for both sides.

“It just clicked,” Fox said.

“I felt good about the way me and him clicked,” Pace reciprocated. “I could feel his energy, and I think he felt mine. I felt really good about it.”

When Pace took the GM job, he said the two most important relationships in the building are between the general manager and head coach and the head coach and the quarterback. There’s bound to be some bumps down the road, but it appears the 37-year-old GM and soon-to-be 60-year-old head coach are the right fit to fulfill that first relationship.

“This young man, I don’t care about age,” Fox said. “He’s smart, he’s honest, he’s all the things I look for in a guy I want to be in the trenches with. I’m excited about that. I think we can both help each other and that’s what this is about, pulling people together.”

Now Fox has to pull a coaching staff together. And after that, he’ll begin to work on that second important relationship: the one between him and the quarterback, who, at least right now, is Jay Cutler.

Calling it “a nice move,” Fox said Cutler texted him after he took the job, but there were no romantic Trestman-like stories about watching tape together in a hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I just reminded him that this game is only fun when we win,” Fox said.

And, later, when asked what traits he likes to see in a quarterback, Fox said: “One that wins.”

Proven by his track record, that quarterback can be Jake Delhomme. It can be Peyton Manning. Or it can even be Tim Tebow.

Maybe it will also be Jay Cutler. Maybe not. But, eventually, it will be someone who wins football games, because that’s what John Fox does. He wins.

At one point during his 35-minute press conference, Fox compared coaching to “holding Jell-O.” Well, in their current state, the Bears represent the Jell-O that’s been sitting in the sun too long. They’re soupy and hard to hold onto. But if there’s one person that can cool that Jell-O, bond it back together and get it to a solid state, it’s John Fox.

Surreal or not, Fox is really here. The Bears got a good one.

Adam Hoge covers the Bears for WGN Radio and WGNRadio.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamHoge.