In the aftermath of cornerback Aaron Ross' collision with teammate Jason Pierre-Paul as they dove for a deflected pass in Sunday's win over the Atlanta Falcons, there seemed to be some confusion into what exactly happened to Ross. The Giants announced it as a head injury shortly after and minutes later Ross' wife tweeted that she heard that he hadn't sustained a concussion.

But on Monday Tom Coughlin said Ross would need to pass the NFL's standard concussion tests and today Coughlin said he passed them.

"Aaron has been cleared and he'll be able to practice," Coughlin said this morning. "He's passed all his protocol that's all I can say."

Third-down RB D.J. Ware didn't have the same luck. Ware wasn't cleared to practice today. He was hurt when he attempted a cut block on Falcons DE John Abraham, who wound up kneeing Ware in the head. Ware quickly dropped to the ground and remained woozy when he tried to stand up.

After the game he told reporters, "I'm good."

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In other injury news ...

--LB Mark Herzlich (ankle) won't practice today. Herzlich hasn't played since injuring his ankle against the New Orleans Saints on Nov. 28.

--RB Ahmad Bradshaw (foot), as expected, won't practice today. He'll likely miss Thursday's practice as well before participating on Friday.

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Tom Coughlin addressed the death of Green Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin's 21-year-old son Michael, whose body was found in a river on Monday.

"Our heart goes out with the Philbin family," Coughlin said. "When we first heard this the other night, the whole coaching staff went absolutely silent. Many guys know Joe Philbin. You have tremendous empathy, but you can't anywhere near have the feeling that his family is going through. Just tragic and the sympathy of the Giants organization goes out to the Philbin family."

Jorge Castillo: jcastillo@starledger.com; twitter.com/jorgeccastillo