During high AoA maneuvering, the pedals produce tight, rolling turns that enable the Hornet to take advantage of misaligned circles in a fight. It can be used to sort of under cut another fighter's flat turn circle... but often at the cost of altitude. To easily test this capability: Just get the Hornet at or (better) below 300 kts and pull back on the stick, then step on the rudder in either direction and see what happens.
Because the Hornet's twin vertical tails are canted outward, they are not blocked by the fuselage of the jet at high AoA like other fighters... so, when the wing surfaces are no longer effective because of that high AoA, the rudders on the tails are still out there in some airstream to do some good.