They made a mistake if they thought that, because the history of South Carolina in recent GOP primaries doesn’t line up with Iowa. Huckabee and Santorum both lost it too.
Although Santorum lost in the end, he had less money than Cruz, he had a few favorable states pushed back to May that Cruz has in March (like Texas) and Cruz arguably is more respected on policy outside of social conservatism than Santorum is.
Cruz is poised for a real comeback in March.
He’ll need to come in second in Nevada then. Another third, and that’ll be it.