There was no grand plan to retreat far enough for the Germans to overstretch themselves, it just ended up that way, but the process to get there almost knocked the Soviets out of the war anyway. The Soviets viciously resisted the German assault, but they were plagued by problems of doctrine, communications, command and control systems, and politics that stacked on top of one another in a death spiral of ineffectual defensive stands and unsupported counterattacks. Stalin was insistent on stopping the German advance, but the Red Army simply couldn't.

In places where the Soviets did manage to hold ground, the Germans were able to envelop the more stubborn defenses and capture tens or even hundreds of thousands of men at a time in the massive Kesselschlacht or Cauldron Battles of 1941. Between the Battles of Mins, Kiev, and Smolensk alone the Germans captured over a million Soviet troops, including almost four hundred thousand in the first 3 weeks of Operation Barbarossa. Every major Soviet counterattack in the opening phase of the war ended with massive German victories.

As for winter, yes the winter was harsh for the Germans, but it wasn't the sole reason their advance stalled. Hell, the winter of 1941-42 didn't even stop the German offensives on the Eastern front! The German army retained the initiative in the offensive through the end of 1942, including the offensive in the south towards the Caucuses. It was only when the Stalingrad offensive petered out that the German army finally had to take a breath, and even then the Germans didn't really lose the imitative on the Eastern front fully until the end of the Battle of Kursk in 1943, a year and a half after the winter that supposedly ravaged the German army.