Sure, they could have tried but would have resoundly failed. All major British invasions during the war of 1812 were defeated notably Lake Champlain, Baltimore and New Orleans. Britain couldn't even even gain control of the Great Lakes which was a perquisite for control of most of the Northern states. British successes were largely limited to stopping American invasions of Canada, seizing peripheral territories like Mobile and Northern Maine, raids in force in Washington and along the Chesapeake Region, and the blockade of the United States which wasn't complete until late 1814. You also have to recognize the tremendous growth of the geographic size of the United States since the end of the revolutionary war, made the chances of Britain returning the United States to colonial rule extremely unlikely from a purely logistical standpoint. It's hard to give a more in-depth answer since the plausibility of British returning the United States to colonial status is virtually zero.