Originally Posted by
Adlerdriver
1 - You've got to align the aircraft fuselage/gear with the runway with rudder.
2 - Since #1 will remove the portion of the aircraft's flight vector that was countering the crosswind, you must now drop the upwind wing with aileron to counter the drift.
There is one thing that everybody is forgetting, it is Newton's second law. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. An airplane that puts rudder in at the last minute during landing has a significant delay time before the crosswind affects the aircraft. Therefore kicking the rudder and keeping the upwind wing level does not produce side loads and makes for a good landing. But of course this changes with lighter or heaver aircraft.