If someone is playing catch-up, they are trying to equal or better someone else's performance. We were playing catch-up for most of the game.

What does playing catch up mean?

: to try to reach the same position, score, etc., as a competitor after one has fallen behind The team fell behind in the second inning and has had to play catch-up ever since. The company has been trying to play a difficult game of catch-up ever since its competitor introduced the new product.

Why is it spending playing catch up?

Origin of Playing Catch Up

Some sources speculate that it comes from sports such as football, in which the team with the lower score is playing extremely hard in order to surpass the score of the other team. Nowadays, the idiom playing catch up has no connotation of involving a game. It simply means trying to catch up.