LANDOVER, Md. -- Bad things don’t happen to good teams. There are no coincidences this season for the Green Bay Packers.

They’re in this hot mess of a season for good reason.

Make that reasons. And many of them were on display for all of the football world to see on Sunday night, when the Washington Redskins ran them out of FedEx Field, 42-24, for the Packers’ fourth straight loss:

They still have no running game (paging Christine Michael, who was inactive four days after the Packers claimed him off waivers).

Coach Mike McCarthy’s end-of-half clock-management decisions backfired once again.

The cornerbacks, or what’s left of them, can’t stop getting beat deep.

The rare big play (welcome back, Jared Cook, who hadn’t played since Week 3) was wasted by the special teams.

No more evidence should be needed to determine that, at 4-6 and two games out of first place in the NFC North with just six weeks remaining, the Packers are all but out of it for 2016.

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Let’s start with the running game. On the first three series, the Packers tried three different ball carriers: James Starks for no gain, Aaron Ripkowski for two yards and Ty Montgomery for four yards and then two. All three series went down the same way: three plays and a punt. That’s the first time Aaron Rodgers has ever started an NFL game that way. Maybe Michael, who is still the only Packers running back to rush for a touchdown this season (even though his scoring plays happened to be for the Seattle Seahawks), can change that next week against the Philadelphia Eagles.

"We had a rough start to the game — three three-and-outs," Rodgers said. "It’s tough. We didn’t get going early. It would’ve helped our defense out if we could’ve got out to a better start."

McCarthy’s penchant for calling timeouts with his defense on the field late in the first half cost him again. He called one with 2:39 left, after Mike Daniels stuffed running back Robert Kelley for a 3-yard loss on first down from the Redskins’ 25. Two plays later, Kirk Cousins hit tight end Jordan Reed for a 26-yard gain that led to Kelly’s 10-yard touchdown run with 39 seconds left before halftime.

Maybe McCarthy was just trying to get the inevitable over as soon as possible and give his offense as much time as possible after another defensive breakdown. Redskins receiver Jamison Crowder ran past Quinten Rollins for a 44-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter, and Pierre Garcon gave LaDarius Gunter the same treatment on a 70-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. The latter was the Packers’ 11th touchdown allowed on throws of 15 or more yards down the field, tying them with the Browns for the most in the NFL. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, they allowed only six touchdowns on such throws all of last season.

Dom Capers’ defense has given up 40-plus points in consecutive games, and the Packers have allowed 30 points or more in four straight games for the first time since the final four games of the 1953 season.

“Defense, we didn’t stop 'em,” McCarthy said. “Our pass defense, we didn’t get off the field. It was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal in the second half. I think that tells the story.”

Maybe you want to pin your hopes on Cook, who had six catches for 105 yards and a touchdown in his first game since his Week 3 ankle injury. But given how the Packers wasted his 47-yard catch in the third quarter, which at the time was the Packers’ longest play of the game, what does it matter? Mason Crosby rendered that catch meaningless after he missed a 36-yard field goal at the end of that drive. And then, to cap it all off, Cook fumbled the ball away in the final minutes of the game.