Job No. 1 for the Raiders' defense in their Week 8 game at Kansas City was to contain explosive running back Jamaal Charles.

The Raiders did better than just contain him; they held him to four rushing yards. But Chiefs offensive coordinator Brian Daboll deserved much of the credit. Charles carried the ball only five times in the Raiders' 26-16 victory.

The Raiders likely won't be so fortunate Sunday when they meet Charles and Kansas City in a rematch at the Coliseum.

Charles carried 18 times for 165 yards last week against Cleveland. On the Chiefs' first play from scrimmage against the Browns, he raced 80 yards for a touchdown. He has rushed for more than 100 yards in four of his past five games and averaged 21.6 carries per game during that stretch.

With 1,220 yards on 240 carries, Charles leads the AFC in rushing and ranks fifth overall. The Chiefs, thanks largely to Charles, rank No. 1 in the AFC in rushing and No. 5 in the NFL.

"He's one of the more explosive players in the league," Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. "So I would anticipate that they would try to get him the ball. ... You never know how the game plan's going to work out. Obviously in that (first) game he touched the ball five times. I would anticipate they would probably try to feed him the ball a little bit more."

Raiders defensive coordinator Jason Tarver said, "I thought our guys did a good job on him last time, and that's going to make them even more motivated. We have to swarm and get off of blocks and make sure we're knocking them back, not the other way around."

Charles, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 last year, is averaging 5.75 yards per carry for his career, No. 1 all-time for running backs with a minimum of 700 carries. Jim Brown ranks second (5.22), Mercury Morris third (5.14), Gale Sayers fourth (5.00) and Barry Sanders fifth (4.99).

"As explosive as they come," Raiders middle linebacker Omar Gaither said of Charles. "We've got to keep him bundled up. He reminds me of -- I didn't play against this guy -- he reminds me of Barry Sanders. You know, 1 yard, 2 yards, 3 yards ... 85 yards."

Raiders cornerback Michael Huff played a season with Charles in college at Texas.

"I always knew he was the fastest kid in the world," Huff said. "I knew he had all the talent. I definitely didn't know he'd put it together like now. Now he's definitely one of the top five backs in the league. He's definitely playing well."

After his team's loss to Oakland, Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said he wasn't sure why Charles got so few carries. The Chiefs trailed just 13-6 at halftime and 16-9 with 8:40 left in the third. There appeared to be no need to abandon the running so quickly.

Daboll explained his decision the week after that loss.

"Give Oakland credit," Daboll told the Kansas City Star. "They did a nice job of stopping the run. We tried to move it some other ways. Every week is a new week. You go as the game develops. You try to run or pass based some on what you think you can do and some on what they're doing. If they're doing a good job of stopping the run over and over, we're going to try and move the ball in another fashion. If we're running the ball well, we'll continue to run the ball."

Huff said he didn't know what happened when Charles stopped getting the ball.

"I was happy, though," Huff said. "As long as they don't give him the ball, that's fine with me."

Dwayne Bowe, Kansas City's No. 1 receiver, has already been ruled out for Sunday's game with a rib injury, which only increases the likelihood of Charles carrying a much bigger load this time.

"Jamaal, he's a guy when he touches the ball, he's a threat to go all the way," Crennel said. "He's been the consistent guy in the running game. If we can get him the ball, get him a seam and get him to the second level, then he has a chance for a big play. His ability to make those plays helps the mindset of the whole team. They feel good about what he's able to do, feel good about changing field position and feel good about putting points on the board. The defense feels good about all those things as well."

Follow Raiders reporter Eric Gilmore on Twitter @CBSRaiders.