With just five days to go until an expected Donald Trump near-sweep on Super Tuesday, Republicans are running out of time to stop the Trump juggernaut. Allow us, though, to indulge a path to the GOP nomination for establishment hero Sen. Marco Rubio that would explain his recent strategy of ignoring Trump. It is the “winnowing” school of nomination victory, and it is rightly falling out of fashion—even with the candidate himself.

The first step would be for Rubio to eliminate Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s having a difficult time expanding his coalition beyond very conservative voters. If Trump beats Cruz in his home state of Texas on Super Tuesday, Cruz would face extraordinary pressure to drop out. This would explain why Rubio—until Wednesday night, at least—had been focused on hammering Cruz and ignoring Trump.