DETROIT -- Detroit’s defensive leaders gathered their teammates around Thursday after practice and had an impromptu meeting.

In the 10-15 minutes they spoke, the leaders stressed forcing turnovers and set a number for how many they’ll need to get every game.

Three turnovers was the goal. On Sunday against Minnesota, the Lions forced four. And those turnovers were mostly caused by pressure from the deepest and most talented overall unit on this Detroit team -- the defensive line.

Minnesota quarterback Christian Ponder’s second interception was caused by a pressure by defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Suh’s neighbor on the defensive line, Nick Fairley, also recovered a fumble and had 1.5 sacks.

Overall, the line was credited with six quarterback hurries of Ponder, which was exactly what they planned to do all along.

“That’s something we want to work on,” Suh said. “That’s something that we pride ourselves on, something we always want to accomplish when we have four-man rushes.

“Coach puts it right on our back when we do that and we want to capitalize every single time we get that opportunity.”

Beyond the pressuring of Ponder, Detroit did a good job on Minnesota star running back Adrian Peterson. During the week, Suh had said how important containing Peterson would be to any chance for a Detroit win.

To keep Peterson neutralized, they would have to bottle pressure up the middle of the offensive line, leaning heavily on Suh and Fairley. Often, that is exactly what Detroit did.

Yet after one carry, it didn’t look good. Peterson hauled 78 yards for a touchdown and the concept of the Detroit’s front four -- the strength of this Lions’ team -- looked to be pretty dire.

He still scored three touchdowns -- two rushing and one receiving -- but he did not completely take over a game like he has been capable of doing in the past. After that first burst, Peterson was held to 15 yards rushing on 17 carries.

“That’s good,” Fairley said. "Going against him, and really any back in the NFL, if you can hold a back under 20 yards rushing after a big rush, that’s good.”

But better because it came against the best running back in the NFL?

“Oh, yeah,” Fairley said. “Oh, yeah. Yeah.”