Provided herein are a method and an apparatus for blind detection of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) using UE-specific reference signals. In an embodiment, the disclosure provides an apparatus for a UE, comprising circuitry configured to: measure a UE-specific Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) associated with a PDCCH; compute a first measurement metric M1 based on the UE-specific DMRS associated with the PDCCH before decoding the PDCCH; decode the PDCCH based on the first measurement metric M1; and decode PDSCH based on the decoded PDCCH. The disclosure may further, based on the corresponding PDCCH DMRS and/or PDSCH DMRS, determine if a PDSCH grant in a decoded PDCCH is valid or not, detect a repeated PDSCH grant in a slot, and detect cross-slot DMRS phase continuity between continuous slots.