Back when Bill Musgrave was a quarterback at the University of Oregon, 27 years ago, he used to play a lot of “Joust,” the video-arcade game that featured combatants riding flying ostriches.

The offensive coordinator of the Raiders, an admitted arcade regular in those days, repeatedly would pound the button trying to flap his ostrich’s wings harder and harder.

“I once developed a big blister on my finger and it was hard to throw a football around for a couple of days,” he said.

Musgrave, 49, doesn’t play “Joust” anymore, but he’s having some familiar struggles regulating his desire to flap those wings. On game days with the Raiders, he would love to keep assaulting through the air with quarterback Derek Carr and receivers Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree. Then Musgrave tells that voice in his head to be quiet.

“There is always a push and pull there,” Musgrave said. “You want to find that balance between being aggressive and being responsible.”

Looks like Musgrave and the Raiders (7-2) have found that balance, resulting in some high-octane offense, including Carr’s franchise record 513 yards passing at Tampa Bay on Oct. 30.

Oakland ranks fifth in the league with 27.2 points per game and 401.1 yards per game. And the Raiders lead the league in fewest times getting sacked (11) and are third in turnover margin (plus-9).

“The guys have really prepared well and competed exceptionally on game day,” said Musgrave, who sat down for a one-on-one interview. “We’ve established a lot of good habits, dating back to offseason workouts and training camp. We’re protecting the football, and when a play is not there to be made, we’re minimizing negative plays.”

Musgrave is using a diverse combination of formations, groupings and route trees to get the passing game going. The tandem of Cooper and Crabtree leads the NFL in first-down catches (70) and first-down catches on third down (26). The duo ranks second in yards (1,439) and receptions (107).

Cooper says Musgrave deserves a lot of the credit.

“I love Coach Musgrave,” Cooper said. “He gets me in great position and in space where I can make plays. He calls the plays based on everyone’s strengths, and there is more trust now that we’re all in our second year together and we’re going deeper into the playbook.”

That continuity, with Musgrave and head coach Jack Del Rio together in their second season, definitely has helped Carr. The third-year quarterback has made another big leap this season, completing 66 percent of his passes for 2,505 yards, with 17 touchdowns and three interceptions.

“He is very steady, and that enables him to make these jumps every year,” Musgrave said. “He reminds me of (Minnesota running back) Adrian Peterson. Adrian only knows how to practice at full speed. There is no such thing as a walk-through for him. That’s the way Derek is.”

The Raiders had a practice Wednesday during the bye week and “Derek is letting it rip, right from the get-go, even though we don’t have an opponent,” Musgrave said. “That ball is flying during a walkthrough like it would be on a Sunday afternoon.”

Musgrave said Carr is the same man every day.

“So consistent, with the same approach,” Musgrave said. “Never down in the dumps or too giddy. Not even when he throws for over 500 yards.”

Not even when Musgrave allows him to check out of plays and call something else, like he did late in victories over New Orleans and San Diego.

“He wants me to take control, and he’s been slowly giving me more and more,” Carr said. “I told him that I can handle whatever you throw at me, and he’s been great at teaching me how to get things done, being a former quarterback himself.”

Carr said he has heard from other quarterbacks that Musgrave wasn’t as flexible in his first four stops as an NFL offensive coordinator, with the Eagles (1998), Panthers (2000), Jaguars (2003-04) and Vikings (2011-13), along with several stints as quarterbacks coach.

“He didn’t let things be changed at the line of scrimmage, but he is letting me do that more and more,” Carr said. “The cool thing is he loves to know my thoughts. A coordinator that loves to listen or run things that you feel comfortable with, that helps us all play confident because we like what we’re doing.”

They may start bouncing things off each other for the next game hours after the last one is over.

“The coaches get started a little earlier after road games, because we get to grade the film on the plane ride back,” Musgrave said. “We start by looking at first and second downs, all the formations on tape. Then the pressures.

”We look for trends and anomalies, looking to crack the code. See if we can find formations that might make the defense predictable, rather than having to prepare for the entire universe of defense.”

So, the Raiders are 5-0 on the road, but rather than celebrating with an adult beverage, Musgrave and the coaches are breaking down tape?

“I wish we were living it up,” Musgrave said. “There was a day back then, in the ’90s, when there would be coolers of beer in the aisle. You’d have to hop over them to get to your seat. But no more. Now it’s a bunch of guys on iPads. Have to keep up with the Joneses.”

This is Musgrave’s 17th year on an NFL staff, after he won a Super Bowl ring as a backup quarterback with the 49ers.

“The experience has been great for me, to learn from mistakes,” Musgrave said. “You learn from triumphs, too. We’re always looking for someone to exploit on their defense, and to somehow get one of our best players matched up against him.

“Hopefully, you get better each year at something you do over and over again.”

Kind of like the Raiders’ offense in their last win, over Denver, in which they kept running behind a mauling offensive line for 218 yards and three touchdowns. Musgrave used a lot of heavy sets, often with six offensive linemen, and showed a national-television audience that Oakland can beat teams in the air or on the ground.

“It was great to lead a game wire to wire,” Musgrave said. “We want to start fast and make the opposing offense one-dimensional.”

Musgrave’s offense is not one-dimensional. Where once you could call him a West Coast offense coach, using the short pass to set up everything, you can’t anymore.

“Being with the Niners and Broncos, it was the West Coach language from Bill Walsh,” Musgrave said. “Still used that language when I was with the Panthers and (the University of) Virginia and in Jacksonville the first time with Jack.”

Since then, the terminology changed in stints with the Falcons and Vikings, as well as with 49ers head coach Chip Kelly when both were with the Eagles.

So, the resulting offense, one with many different formations and tendencies, has no name.

“No name,” Musgrave said. “Hopefully, just a ‘score points’ offense.”

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur