Is it your take he’s only shooting for second place from here on out?
That would seem to be the conclusion.
Absolutely not. He wants to take on Trump one-on-one, not on a stage with the five remnants of the seven dwarves.
He needs to see Kasich, Bush, Rubio, Carson and Christie forced out. Cruz will go for the outright win in South Carolina. That is definitely doable if Cruz gets a ticket out of New Hampshire. He does not need a win in New Hampshire. There may be two drop out after New Hampshire. We'll see.
There will likely be at least three more out after South Carolina, Carson, Kasich and Christie. Assuming that they have survived that long. Maybe Rubio out as well.
By Super Tuesday, we're likely looking at only Trump, Cruz and Bush, and maybe one other. In that lineup, Cruz will do very well. By the end of March, we'll be down to two, Trump and Cruz, and no chance for the others based on accrued delegates. The also rans may well be cut out of delegates by the 15% or 20% threshold requirement in many of the Super Tuesday states. Cruz will likely run the balance of the primaries since he beats Trump head to head in every poll I've seen.
That's Cruz's path forward. Time is the revelator. We'll have to wait and see how this works out.
The plan is to win the South, Florida included, on "NY values" and Christianity as interpreted by Pastor Cruz.
A poor choice, IMO, but their options are somewhat constrained.