Can the Pats rebound?

Why is this such a big question around the sports world right now? They have been one of the most dominant teams in the league for the past 7 years winning 3 rings in 4 of those years. Now they've lost 1 Super Bowl coming only 1 game short of posting the first perfect season since 1972 and now they're bums? Have people forgotten about the offense this team is going to be running this season? They only lost Donte Stallworth, a receiver that contributed to a whole 4 of Brady's 50 touchdown pes. Yeah they lost some key players on defense but no matter how thin they are with talent on defense they always manage to field a shutdown D. Even with all that said... they have the easiest schedule in the NFL this season... that alone should hand them homefield advantage in the playoffs. I don't know, seems to me that the media is just looking for things to write about the Pats these days.