This feels like '07 because it's also after a disappointing AFC CG loss, and because a clearly frustrated Belichick again seems determined to make a major overhaul. But I also think that the coming overhaul will be an intentional departure from the '07 formula that he fell in love with for years.
After '07, Belichick seemed obsessed with winning with a video-game offense and a ragtag defense. But his teams lacked toughness and came up small in the playoffs -- particularly the offense. The Pats' defense actually played way over its head in the Super Bowl run two years ago and for all its flaws wasn't the real culprit this year, either.
My guess is they build a new team around balance, toughness, size, and physical explosiveness. The Pats of '01-'04 were superior on both defense and special teams. This team in recent years has been lopsided in favor of an offense built around a small, slow, aging slot receiver. It's just time to change the whole mathematics of this team.
Remember when we kept trying to go back to the Super Bowl with Drew Bledsoe and every year, we heard the same thing -- we need to get Drew another receiver? We need to draft David Terrell! Well, as soon as we stopped worrying about what our star quarterback wanted and just built a football team, we started winning like crazy. The current team has a lot of terrific assets -- Gronk, Hernandez, Solder, Mankins, Wilfork, Jones, the three young linebackers, McCourty, Dennard, the running backs and the makings of an outstanding ST unit with players like Slater, Ebner and Wilson and (hopefully) returners like Demps and someone like Leon Washington or Josh Cribbs (I don't think it's an accident that players like this have been an early focus of the team in FA).
You add a couple of pieces to the defense and a couple of good, solid receivers -- not stars, but just good players who can make a tough catch in the fourth quarter -- you've got a team with great balance again. They need a team that can win 7-6 or win 38-35. I don't think they're that far away.
So to me, I don't think they're going back to '07. I think they want to go back to '04, building a big, tough, explosive roster from top to bottom. It's going to be fun to watch them doing that.
